


Tell Her What She Wants To Know

by mercy_angel_09



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M, Family, Romance, That one time Castle was speechless, you have committed a grave error in the dating game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 16:45:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercy_angel_09/pseuds/mercy_angel_09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick panicked, and now it’s up to Alexis and Martha to help him pick up the pieces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Her What She Wants To Know

**Author's Note:**

> It’s been forever since I’ve been inspired to write for Castle, and then following “The Squab and the Quail” I got a plot-bunny that just wouldn’t go away. Enjoy~

“Richard? _Richard? **RICHARD!**_ ”

With a start, Richard Castle looked up to see his mother and daughter looking expectantly at him. Martha’s hands were on her hips, her brow furrowed in frustration. Alexis looked worried, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she gazed pensively at her father.

“What? Is there some calamity I should be aware of?” he asked, looking between them.

With a dramatic sigh, Martha flopped down on the couch. “Richard, we were calling your name for nearly five minutes. What’s going on in your head that’s so important?”

Alexis moved to sit next to her dad, watching him like a hawk watched a mouse or a small rabbit. It was unsettling.

“I was just…thinking,” Rick responded with a faint shrug. “Is that so unusual?”

“Normally I’d say no,” Martha conceded, “but you looked very…” She turned to Alexis, “How would you describe that face?”

Cocking to her head to the side for a moment, Alexis studied her father’s face. “Apprehensive.”

“I am not apprehensive!” Rick replied.

“You are,” Martha said, giving him a look that clearly said Mother Knows Best.

“Come on, Dad,” Alexis pleaded, “what’s going on?”

“I…it’s nothing,” he lied. Unfortunately Rick had picked up so little of Martha’s acting ability that his lies, especially when he was worried about something, were obvious.

Martha and Alexis shared a glance before Martha decided to approach the subject in a different way. “Did something happen between you and Kate?”

“It’s nothing. I can handle it,” Rick deflected, getting up to get something to drink.

“You didn’t break up, did you?” Alexis asked, and Rick grimaced at the note of uncertainty in her voice.

“No, we did not break up. We’re just going through a rough patch. All relationships go through rough patches.”

“Sometimes those rough patches end relationships,” Martha said.

“I swear, there’s nothing wrong! Nothing’s happened!”

“That sounds like a suspiciously specific denial,” Martha murmured. “You might as well spill it, Richard. We’ll get it out of you sooner or later, and I promise that this will be less painful.”

Settling back down on the couch with a bottle of beer, Rick sighed. “Kate asked where we were going.”

“I’m guessing she didn’t mean a location,” Alexis surmised, given the rather resigned air about her father. “Please tell me you at least told her of an immediate plan. A longer dating period to better get to know her outside of work, or maybe you were considering asking her to move in.”

Rick blanched, causing his mother to groan.

“Oh Richard you didn’t,” Martha groaned, tossing her head back. “Please tell me you said something.”

“I told her we were going into the bedroom with all of the candles and the rose petals so I could give her a massage,” he answered in a tiny voice.

“Dad!” Alexis cried, swatting him on the shoulder. Martha buried her face in her hands.

“I panicked!” he defended. “She caught me totally by surprise. She _blind-sided_ me.”

“Well no wonder the poor girl isn’t here!” Martha said as she got up to get herself a glass of wine. “She thinks you’re going to leave her at any time!”

“That’s not true!” Rick protested. “I panicked, that’s all!”

“Dad, you’ve committed a grave sin in the ways of dating,” Alexis sagely. “Now you must sacrifice yourself on the altar of dignity for her.”

“Don’t quote _10 Things I Hate About You_ at me,” he scoffed. “Anyway, I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with her, but what if she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life with me?”

“Oh,” Martha said, sitting down with her Shiraz. “I see how it is. After two failed marriages…”

“I love her. She means so much to me that I don’t want to lose her. And sometimes I think that she could do a lot better than somebody who gets caught up trash talking tweens over the internet about some stupid game,” he mumbled before taking a swig of beer. “I don’t want to take her for granted.”

“Dad, if she can’t see how amazing you are, she doesn’t deserve you,” Alexis said as she scooted over and cuddled up against him.

“Is this how girl talk works? When Jimmy dumps Brenda, all of the girls get together to tell her that he’s a jerk that doesn’t deserve her and then binge on ice cream and pizza?”

Alexis gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs with her elbow.

“I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask,” he groaned.

“The point is, Dad, that you and Beckett love each other,” she said. “You two deserve to be happy, together.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but at this point I have no idea how to make it up to her.”

“Then propose already!” Martha said in exasperation. “You pined for her for four years, Richard. That’s much longer than things went with Meredith or Gina. You got to know her, and then you started dating her. Seems like the next logical step is to propose!”

“Mother!” Rick said, completely affronted that she was suggest such a drastic move at this point in their relationship. “I said I want things to work out, not completely destroy them!”

“Honestly, Richard, you’ve never had any problems about just jumping into situations before,” Martha shrugged before sipping her wine. “Just go for it!”

“Mother, did you not hear me say that I wanted this to work?” he asked with a frown.

“Gran’s right, just propose,” Alexis agreed.

“Whoa, hey now,” Rick said, turning to face his daughter. “I thought you didn’t want me dating her.”

“I know a losing battle when I see one, Dad,” Alexis snorted. “Besides, you’ve been completely besotted with her since you met her.”

“Besotted? I was not besotted! I was smitten.”

“I think twitterpated is a better term,” Martha said into her wine glass, earning a giggle from Alexis and a glare from Rick. Lowering the glass, she sighed. “Richard, Kate Beckett is the best thing that’s ever happened to you. If you don’t propose to that girl and live happily ever after, I will make your life miserable.”

“And if I propose to her and we get married and we end up miserable?” Rick replied. “What then? I don’t want to screw this up. It’s why I didn’t give her an answer.”

“Sometimes you just have to take that risk,” Alexis said, patting her dad on the back. “You won’t know until you ask. Otherwise you’re going to spend the rest of your miserable and lonely life wondering if you made the right decision.”

“My life is not miserable and lonely,” he argued back. “Mother refuses to move out and you still come one often enough that sometimes I wonder why you even moved into the dorms in the first place.”

“The point I was trying to make,” Alexis said, derailing whatever diatribe her father was about to go on, “is that Kate makes you happy, and all we want is to see you happy. So just ask her to marry you already.”

“Easier said than done,” Rick sighed. “You know that if Gates finds out I won’t be able to shadow her at the precinct anymore.”

“Every relationship comes with risks, it’s just a matter of if you’re willing to take them,” Martha said sagely.

Placing his now empty bottle of beer on the coffee table, Rick threw his hands up. “Fine, fine! Obviously something’s gotta give here, and as you have made so obviously clear, that something has to be me.”

“I think he’s finally gotten it,” Martha said with a satisfied smile.

Giving his mother and daughter a dirty look, Rick stood and stretched before settling into his office to do some research. This was not an easy task before him.


End file.
